argh, the inevitable cold is creeping up on me here in Waterloo...but i can't get depressed, no time to mope! lucky i got a dose of inspiration today:
just before lunch i got to go see Njacko Backo (an African drummer from Cameroon) perform on campus for free as part of an assignment for my World Music course. this dude was hilarious w/ his wisecracks & dreadlocks, and his drumming was whack; polyrhythms, crazy variations, singing, & all these diff. types of drums n instruments, it was pretty cool. he said they have these big ass drums in the village that they call the "african telephone" & they use it to communicate, and today he brought a smaller version of it that he called the "african cell phone". at the end he got a bunch of ppl to go up n play along w/ him too, i was playin the shakers, some others on drums, one girl got to use the "african cell phone", and he even got 2 ppl to dance (sorta). it was great entertainment, just wish that i'd known about these free noon hour concerts the last 2 years i was here. ah well, that made my day.
SO...thanks to today's inspiring musical journey, i've a new retro-tune in my head - hot days & warm summer nights are gone, but i can still close my eyes, reminisce about summer & let the sounds of Big Mountain send me off to some sunny, sandy beach in jamaica...with lots of coconuts.
summer in Vancouver...
